Ancient Samians: Pythagoras, Epicurus, Aristarchus of Samos, Conon of Samos, Aesop, Melissus of Samos, Duris of Samos, Telesarchus of S

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 28. Chapters: Aeaces, Aegles, Aeschrion of Samos, Aesop, Aethlius (writer), Agatharchus, Agathocles (writers), Amphicrates, Aristarchus of Samos, Asclepiades of Samos, Asius of Samos, Choerilus of Samos, Colaeus, Conon of Samos, Creophylus of Samos, Duris of Samos, Epicurus, Hedylus, Lynceus of Samos, Mandrocles, Melissus of Samos, Nicaenetus of Samos, Philaenis, Polycrates, Pythagoras, Pythagoras (sculptor), Rhoecus, Semonides of Amorgos, Syloson, Telesarchus of Samos, Theodorus of Samos, Theon of Samos. Excerpt: Aesop (pronounced -sop, Ancient Greek: , Aisōpos, c. 620-564 BC) was a fabulist or story teller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as Aesop's Fables. Although his existence remains uncertain and (if they ever existed) no writings by him survive, numerous tales credited to him were gathered across the centuries and in many languages in a storytelling tradition that continues to this day. In many of the tales, animals speak and have human characteristics. Scattered details of Aesop's life can be found in ancient sources, including Aristotle, Herodotus, and Plutarch. An ancient literary work called The Aesop Romance tells an episodic, probably highly fictional version of his life, including the traditional description of him as a strikingly ugly slave () who by his cleverness acquires freedom and becomes an adviser to kings and city-states. Older spellings of his name have included Esop(e) and Isope. A later tradition (dating from the Middle Ages) depicts Aesop as a black Ethiopian. Depictions of Aesop in popular culture over the last 2500 years have included several works of art and his appearance as a character in numerous books, films, plays, and television programs. A woodcut from La vida del Ysopet con sus fabulas historiadas (Spain, 1489) depicts a hunchbacked Aesop surrounded by events from the stories in Planudes' version of his life The earliest Greek sources, including Aristotle, indicate that Aesop was born around 620 BC in Thrace at a site on the Black Sea coast which would later become the city Mesembria; a number of later writers from the Roman imperial period (including Phaedrus, who adapted the fables into Latin), say that he was born in Phrygia. The 3rd-century poet Callimachus called him "Aesop of Sardis," and the later writer Maximus of Tyre called him "the sage of Lydia." From Aristotle and Herodotus we learn that Aesop was a slave in Samos and that his masters were first a man named Xanthus and then a man named Iadmon; that he